Has Private Cloud had its day?

From the days of MSN Messenger, iTunes, Gmail and AOL. We have always been consuming Cloud Computing. However, over the last few years there is no doubt that Cloud Computing has revolutionised the business sector. Any organisation that is considering their growth and scalability must establish the right Cloud computing model for them. If your business is considering moving its IT Infrastructure to the Cloud then you need to understand the choices available and the benefits of each, you should also understand why Public is the future of Cloud computing and why Private is probably not your best option.

My name is Richard Marsh and I have worked in the IT sector for the last 18 years, in that time I have gained an excellent understanding of the fast-paced world of Information Technology. Having held positions in large enterprises as well as SMEs, Private Cloud Hosting Providers and MSPs, more recently I have been contracting for numerous banks in the UK. With this experience, I would like to instil some of my findings on the benefits of Public Cloud vs Private.

Firstly, you should know by now, but simply put, Cloud is a virtualised datacentre which is made available to you either in a dedicated or shared environment. Cloud Computing, often known as ‘Infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS), is typically cheaper than hosting your own infrastructure at your own premises. The choice in 2018 into 2019 is Public or Private. If you asked me this question 10 years ago, Private would have been my next word, now it would be Public.

Private Cloud is typically a tailored solution to customers. These providers have more than likely invested tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds in the infrastructure to support the services. These MSPs will want to ‘sweat their assets’ for as long as they can and could be tempted to leave hardware for longer, meaning the underlying infrastructure you are consuming could be aged and not in line with current technologies.

Public Cloud offers a rental service which is consumed over the internet typically under a “pay as you go” model. Customers will partner with an MSP to configure and create the infrastructure to support your business. The top Cloud providers in the UK are Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google. Hardware is current, and constantly upgraded and reviewed, as is software, security of course is paramount with updates happening instantly.

So how do you compare these two options? In my experience, it comes down to 4 factors:

Price

Typically, Public Cloud is cheaper than Private Cloud. This is due to the scalability and granularity of the offering. For instance, Amazon Web Services will notify you if you are spending too much on services that you are not utilising. Also, with Private Cloud hosting providers, costs are typically much higher as you are paying for staff to “keep the lights on” with your services. Businesses are now comparing their IT spend with buying groups to ensure they are spending a similar cost per head as other business in that sector. However most Private Cloud Providers are still trying to commit clients into multi-year contracts, completely the opposite of Public Cloud. Public Cloud bills by the hour/day or month, ensuring whatever the business needs, it gets, without complex and tricky billing models.

Service

Public Cloud allows you to couple the infrastructure scale that Amazon or Microsoft provides with the in-depth technical knowledge of multiple partners. This gives you the best possible service as you allow these partners to provide the skillset against your infrastructure hosted within Amazon or Microsoft. Private Cloud will typically bind you to that provider, limiting the potential growth of your organisation to the knowledge set of the provider. We are all moving to a ‘self-serve’ model where individual users consume through apps and web portals, just like at a McDonald’s, we self-serve. Everybody can install apps and use software in a browser, consuming Public Cloud and SaaS services. With many applications now being delivered via a browser in a true SaaS model, we no longer need Private Cloud hosted desktop environments nor lots of support with it. Office 365, Xero, Sage Cloud all prime examples.

Support

As with service, Support is limited with the Private Cloud provider to their own support agreements. Whereas Public Cloud providers can provide Global Support 24 x 7. You can also contract with local Service Providers to elevate the support requirements to suit your business. This separates out the infrastructure from the business intelligence, allowing you to contract with the best providers and not the ones who also provide you the Cloud infrastructure.

Security

Hardware and Software is likely to be out of date using a traditional MSP’s Private Cloud. The increasing rate of IT change doesn’t fit with the Private Cloud model, service providers will want to ‘sweat their assets’ for as long as they can. As a consumer of Private Cloud, you risk being on an old platform, that doesn’t deliver what you would get in terms of performance or security if you were to go to Public Cloud. Since the security of the Public Cloud providers is so high, wouldn’t you rather trust your business data in the hands of providers where they are also hosting some of the largest banking platforms in the world?

In summary

Private Cloud was the enabler, but as technologies have evolved, so has consumption, and with it, the IT delivery model. In 2018 and beyond, nobody will care what hardware they run on (do you know now?), or what the security solution is called. People buy outcomes, and those outcomes are delivered with more speed, efficiency and less cost in Public Cloud. In my opinion Private Cloud has had its day, except for the outdated or bespoke solutions that will soon catch up. For the last year, and more recently I have been working within the UK banking industry. Most of whom are migrating or due to embark on a Public Cloud migration plan. With the explosion in digital banks such as Redwood and Monzo, even the most heavily regulated industries are being allowed by the FCA to adopt Public Cloud. I am helping organisations architect, plan, deliver and migrate to the cloud. If you are looking at how the Cloud can help your business, please feel free to contact me on the details below.

info@rcmconsultancy.com 07970 097 446 rcmconsultancy.com